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Talk:Peggy McMillan/@comment-71.12.177.197-20180213160503
I liked Ellie the best as Andy's love interest. She may have been too strong a character for the producers at a time when they were looking for story lines and story arcs that would allow for the kind of comedy they wanted to flow into the future. They discontinued Ellie after the first season and Peggy came along in the third season and I really liked her as a love interest for Andy as well. She had a relatively short but bright stay on the show, appearing and being a major part of the storylines of 4 of the first 10 episodes of the third season and then vanished without a trace. With either of these characters, TAGS would have been way ahead of American small town life in the early sixties, as both of these characters had a professional career. It seems from the few episodes she was in that Peggy would have the most believable as a southern professional woman in that part of rural America at that time and she and Andy seemed to be a good fit. Helen was brought in as Opie's teacher in the latter episodes on the third season. She was also a professional woman albeit in a more conventional career for women at that time (I guess nursing was too). It seems to me that the producers did not want a female character that would take up any of the spotlight. As they worked through some of Andy Griffith's stand up materials in the early episodes of the first season, they realized what a treasured talent they had in Don Knotts and Andy transitioned to the wise, pragmatic straight man to Barney's frenetic character (and to a little lesser extent, the wise and loving single father to Opie) which was TV gold for 5 seasons. By mixing in Gomer and Earnest T Bass during those first five seasons they were able craft that wacky world swirling around the wise and grounded Sheriff Taylor in Mayberry. Ironically, I have always seen a clear difference in the first five seasons of TAGS filmed in black and white compared to the following seasons filmed in color when it seemed to me that all the color was drained from the show. Barney's exit ended the golden age of this TV show even though it was more highly rated in its latter years. After all, he won and richly deserved the five Emmys he won in his five years on the show. After Barney left we were left with and increasingly irritated and frustrated Andy Taylor surrounded by characters Barney would have characterized as "boobs", characters selected for their lack of charisma or charm. Can you think of any classic scenes with Howard Sprague and Helen Crump? Very successful TV shows much later proved there was plenty of room in a comedy for strong male and female leads. Still, TAGS was possibly the best TV comedy ever put together - especially the first five years My favorite episode: "Mr. McBeevee"